SAN FRANCISCO — The embattled political data firm Cambridge Analytica quietly sought to develop its own virtual currency in recent months through a so-called initial coin offering, a novel fund-raising method that has come under growing scrutiny by financial regulators around the world.
The offering was part of a broader, but still very private push that the firm was making into the nascent world of cryptocurrencies over the last year.
Much like its acquisition of Facebook data to build psy...

The top Democrats on two House committees are demanding answers from five data analytics companies involved with President Donald Trump’s campaign about their voter targeting and whether they were helped by a foreign entity or actor.
Representatives John Conyers of the Judiciary Committee and Elijah Cummings of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said in letters to the companies Thursday that while it’s known that Russia interfered with the 2016 election by targeting voters online,...